Behavioural and electrophysiological correlates of lightness contrast and assimilation.

Lightness contrast and assimilation are opposite phenomena: in contrast grey targets appear darker when bordering bright rather than dark surfaces; in assimilation grey targets appear lighter when bordering bright rather than dark surfaces. The underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of these phenomena are not known. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between contrast and assimilation, and the timing and levels of perceptual and cognitive processing using combined behavioural and electrophysiological methods.

Graphic imagery is not sufficient for increased attention to cigarette warnings: the role of text captions.

Aims: The present study aims to assess the extent to which attention to UK cigarette warnings is attributable to the graphic nature of the content.

Design: A visual dot probe task was utilised, with the warnings serving as critical stimuli that were manipulated for the presence of graphic versus neutral image content, and the accompanying text caption. This mixed design yielded image content (graphic versus neutrally-matched images) and presence (versus absence) of text caption as within subjects variables and smoking status as a between-participants variable.

Evidence that process simulations reduce anxiety in patients receiving dental treatment: randomized exploratory trial.

Process simulations--mental simulations that ask people to imagine the process of completing a task--have been shown to decrease anxiety in students facing hypothetical or psychological threats in the short term. The aim of the present study was to see whether process simulations could reduce anxiety in a sample of the general population attending a dental practice, and whether these effects could be sustained throughout treatment. Participants (N=75) were randomized to an experimental condition where they were asked to simulate mentally the process of seeing the dentist, or to a control condition where they were asked to simulate mentally the outcome of seeing the dentist.

Using implementation intentions to overcome the effects of social anxiety on attention and appraisals of performance.

The present research examines whether forming implementation intentions can help people with social anxiety to control their attention and make more realistic appraisals of their performance. In Experiment 1, socially anxious participants (relative to less anxious participants) exhibited an attentional bias toward social threat words in a Visual Dot Probe task. However, socially anxious participants who formed implementation intentions designed to control attention did not exhibit this bias.

Use of mental simulations to change theory of planned behaviour variables.

Objectives: The predictive validity of the theory of planned behaviour is well established, but much less is known about: (a) whether there are causal relationships between key components of the model and (b) how to go about changing the theory of planned behaviour variables. This study tested the ability of outcome and process simulations to change variables specified in the theory of planned behaviour in relation to blood donation.

Design: Participants (N=146) were randomized to one of four conditions: outcome simulation only, process simulation only, process-plus-outcome simulation and a distractor control condition.